KELSEY, TEXAS

The town was named for early settler W. H. Kelsey -
a doctor who arrived sometime before the Civil War. In 1901 a colony
of Mormons was founded on Kelsey Creek. It drew Mormons from far and
wide and a school was established that same year - run by missionaries
from the Mother Church in Utah.

The post office opened in 1902 and closed in 1918. In 1910 the Marshall
and East Texas Railway arrived and Kelsey's future seemed bright.

By 1911 the town had a brick kiln, sawmills, a cotton gin, two blacksmiths,
and a gristmill.

The Kelsey Academy, a public school staffed by Mormon missionaries
opened in 1911. Kelsey reached its zenith in 1917 with 750 people
and more living nearby in Enoch, a Mormon settlement. The railroad
was abandoned in 1917, the post office closed and during the 1920s
and 1930s people moved away in droves. By 1938 there were 350 people
left but after WWII
it declined further. Then came school consolidation which finished
the town off.

By the mid-1960s all that was left was one store and a church and
cemetery. It is now known as a dispersed community and the remaining
residents are descendants of the original Mormon settlers.